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  v0.2.0-rc.34 Pre-release

  Cody Bryant released this 2026-08-19 15:27:23 -07:00 | 6 commits to main since this release

  The release where the robot stopped being read-only. Clean cycle and Reset are
  real buttons now, and whiskerless issues the certificates your broker needs
  instead of leaving that to you.

  Thanks to @CryingPecan, whose LitterHopper robot
  is behind much of the hopper work. Protocol detail lives in
  docs/devices/litter-robot-4/.

  Breaking changes

  • Broker usernames and passwords are gone — --username, --password and
    WHISKERLESS_PASSWORD. Everything authenticates by certificate now.
  • One broker per machine. --host and --ca moved off the everyday commands
    onto setup. A separate broker is a separate store: point WHISKERLESS_HOME at
    it.
  • --port and --insecure are gone. The robot's port is fixed in its firmware
    and it always checks the broker's name, so both could only point the CLI somewhere
    the robot cannot follow. A saved port is ignored, not an error.
  • whiskerless adopt is removed. Re-provision instead.
  • The store moved to ~/whiskerless. Your old ~/.whiskerless is moved there
    on first run, and settings 0.2.0 no longer reads are dropped from your robot
    profiles at the same time. That run tells you what changed.
  • Every robot gets a certificate of its own, with no way to opt out. A robot
    holding one still works on a broker that allows anonymous clients, so there was
    nothing to trade — and whiskerless robots marks any robot still presenting the
    certificate it shipped with.
  • whiskerless has to be able to sign now, unless you say otherwise. A store
    holding a CA certificate but not its key is no longer an unstated arrangement —
    it read like a finished setup while quietly refusing to issue anything. setup
    asks for the key, or offers a new authority; the second answer means
    re-provisioning every robot. See Upgrading from 0.1.3 in the README for what
    that costs at the robot and at the broker.
  • setup --auth records how your store authenticates, for a signing key that
    lives somewhere else on purpose. supplied takes a certificate per robot from
    provision --robot-cert/--robot-key and never wants the CA key; anonymous
    leaves robots the certificate they shipped with. The mode is stored, so later
    commands behave the same way with no flags, and a mode your files can no longer
    carry out is an error naming both rather than a silent downgrade.
  • Each robot's certificate is kept at robots/<serial>/client/, where this
    machine's has always been kept at client/. A robot re-provisioned stays the
    same client to your broker, so ACLs and log lines keyed to it still point at it;
    provision --reissue replaces one deliberately. provision now says to back up
    afterwards, because it leaves behind material an earlier backup does not have.
  • Certificates you supply are checked before anything is written: they have to
    chain to your CA, be valid now, not be a CA themselves, and carry the robot's
    serial as their common name — which is where a broker gets the robot's username.
    Nothing is filed until it passes, and a robot's is filed only once the robot has
    accepted it, so a rejected or aborted run leaves the one you were using intact.
  • binary_sensor.…_waste_drawer_removed → sensor.…_waste_drawer_last_moved.
    The robot never reports which way the drawer moved.
  • switch.…_panel_sleep_mode is now a binary sensor — the firmware refuses
    direct writes. Use the weekday schedule entities.
  • Clean cycle wait time is a number (3–30 minutes), not a select.
  • Library: Hazard.MOTOR, MotorCommandError, allow_motor,
    LitterRobot4Client and WhiskerlessAuthError are removed. Power still needs
    allow_dangerous.

  Added

  • Clean cycle and Reset buttons. Empty cycle, Power and WiFi ship disabled and
    marked (danger) — each costs a litter refill or takes the robot off the
    network. The CLI gains empty-cycle, power and wifi-toggle.
  • whiskerless runs a certificate authority for you. whiskerless setup makes
    the CA, your broker's certificate and this machine's identity, then prints the
    three files your broker needs. Bring your own with --ca and --ca-key.
  • Each robot gets its own certificate, written over BLE and named for its
    serial — so your broker can stop accepting anonymous clients.
  • whiskerless backup and whiskerless restore — the whole store in one
    optionally-encrypted file. The CA key is the one thing you cannot regenerate.
  • The CLI remembers your robots. provision saves them; robots, use and
    forget manage them. A second robot asks only for its serial and WiFi password.
  • Provisioning verifies the WiFi join, so a mistyped password fails loudly
    instead of leaving you a robot that never appears.
  • Litter level as a percentage — self-calibrating, or pinned with one press.
  • LitterHopper support: connected, fill gauge, and an out-of-litter alert the
    firmware never raises. A dispense arrives as three messages ~20 s apart, so the
    level survives a restart and one dispense cannot prove an empty hopper.
  • New entities: last cat visit, visit duration (disabled until your robot
    proves it reports one), waste drawer last moved, panel brightness for bright and
    dark rooms, and excess-weight detection.
  • whiskerless status, calibrate and panel-reset.
  • New install channels: apt and dnf repositories, Homebrew with prebuilt
    bottles, .deb/.rpm, a signed macOS .pkg, and standalone Linux binaries —
    none of which need a system Python. Packages are GPG-signed
    (4BBACD5A6FF38564); setup is in the README.

  Fixed

  • Cat detection no longer mistakes weight on the scale for a cat, handling the
    robot is not a visit, and long visits are no longer dropped.
  • robotStatus 10 is the clean cycle. Unmapped, its readings were published as
    real litter levels. Readings are also suppressed while the globe is not level.
  • The globe motor fault sensor watches the activity stream, where the fault
    actually appears — the state document sat at 0 through a real fifty-minute fault.
  • Panel sleep and wake times can be set, and the weekday schedule arms every
    day rather than only Sunday.
  • whiskerless setup survives a long hostname, and reissues the broker's
    certificate when you move the broker — if it holds your CA's key. A certificate
    it did not issue is reported, never overwritten.
  • Provisioning works where the network list is not a multiple of four. The
    robot's WiFi scan is fetched in pages, and the last page asked for more than
    remained — which this firmware answers by dropping the Bluetooth link, halfway
    through provisioning. It looked like flaky Bluetooth.
  • Provisioning tells you to hold Connect, and stops scanning the moment it
    finds your robot — it only advertises while you hold the button, and the scan
    was spending that window.
  • The robot's IP address is reported instead of "no lease yet". It answers
    "connected" before DHCP replies, so the address was read a moment too early.
  • Errors are sentences, not stack traces. --debug gives the traceback and
    the request log — with the WiFi password and the robot's key left out of it.
  • A short press of Connect toggles WiFi off, which the docs called harmless —
    the robot vanishes from your broker and looks dead. Hold it for pairing mode.
  • The declared Home Assistant minimum is correct (2025.3.0).

  Changed

  • The Refresh button is on by default, on existing installs too.
  • Manual calibration buttons ship disabled — the robot calibrates itself.

  Downloads

  • Source code (ZIP)
    0 downloads
  • Source code (TAR.GZ)
    2 downloads

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